Basic Aspects of Geopotential Field Approximation From Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking Data

The satellite-to-satellite tracking (SST) problems are characterized from mathematical point of view. Uniqueness results are formulated. Moreover, the basic relations are developed between (scalar) approximation of the earth's gravitational potential by "scalar basis systems" and (vectorial) approximation of the gravitational eld by "vectorial basis systems". Finally, the mathematical justication is given for approximating the external geopotential field by finite linear combinations of certain gradient fields (for example, gradient fields of multi-poles) consistent to a given set of SST data.